"When I was young, I used to have this thing where I wanted to see everything. I used to think, 'How can I die without seeing every inch of this world?'"–Leonardo DiCaprio

Main Menu

Back to the motherland part 2

In my last post about my trip home I mentioned that I don’t get homesick. I think I should clarify that this doesn’t mean I don’t miss people. It was definitely difficult to leave to go back to Japan after my week in the US. Seeing my family and friends again reminded me just how huge the distance is between us.

One of the most exciting part of my visit was surprising my friend Kari. Kari just had her second son in January, and I thought it would be extra fun to surprise her. I had to coordinate the surprise through her husband and mother-in-law, and at the same time make sure I kept the news of my trip of the facebooks and things like that so word wouldn’t get to her that I was coming. Luckily everything worked out perfectly and she had no idea I would be showing up at her door. Her husband told her someone was stopping by, so she was prepared for a guest, but had no idea the guest would be me!

When she opened the door she said “Hi! How are youuuuuu…OH MY GOSH!” since she was expecting someone else, she just went into the usual greeting mode, and then suddenly realized it was me, and I was supposed to be in Japan! It was so amazing to see her and to meet her new son, Asher (who I take credit for naming).

It was also great to see little Adam again!

Adam even took quite a liking to both my mom and dad.

I couldn’t get him to sit still to pose with me, though…

But here’s a decent one of my with mom and the boys!

And here’s the whole cute family!

For our last visit together we went to Laughing Planet for lunch. It was nice hanging out but of course bittersweet because we knew it would be the last time we would see each other for who knows how long.

It looks like we ate at Circa 33 but we ate next door 🙂

Adam didn’t want to pose for a goodbye picture!

It was great to see all of them, and of course both Kari and I started crying when we had to say our goodbyes.

I love you Kari!!

I’m getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it, so I better stop this post here!